Welcome to Decoupage Qld

The Decoupage Guild of Queensland meets 5 times a year. If you are interested in seeing what we do on these days, why not drop in one day and meet us. For more information phone Heather Lihou our President on (07) 3205 1943 or Secretary Barbara Chapple on 07 3359 8937. Follow Barbara's Blog here

our newsletter is sent to members approximately 2 weeks before the meetings.,

JO FROM PERTH ------PLEASE PHONE HEATHER AS YOU GAVE HER A WRONG PHONE NUMBER

Our meetings are fun and fairly informal where we mostly show each other what we've been working on, ask advice on problems, and share tips we've happened across.

Wishing all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

From time to time we invite speakers to give talks.

We also organise special events and take part in regional festivals and expos. Recently we have held some very successful weekend workshops where we've had a lot of fun while learning more than you could ever imagine about decoupage.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DECOUPAGE

Around about 1750, people living in Venice started doing what was then known as 'laccapovera', or poor man's art. It happened after the beautiful lacquer work from the East had become so popular, but that was very expensive, having been shipped from so far away. Printers produced sheets of engravings to be used in 'laccapovera' These were then hand coloured,cut and pasted on to furniture and varnished to look like the high gloss of lacquer.

The popularity of 'laccapovera' spread to other Italian cities and then throughout Europe. The name Decoupage was given by the French. It comes from the word 'decouper' which means 'to cut'. There have been many famous people who have been keen Decoupage exponents. It is said that no pictures were safe from Marie Antoinette and her ladies' scissors. Mary Delany, an English lady, cut perfect replicas of flowers from specially made coloured papers to use in her work. Queen Victoria loved the art of Decoupage and became quite a collector.

Unfortunately, the popularity of doing Decoupage has faded over time. Venice, where it all began, has not produced very much since the time of Napoleon. It ceased in France about the time of the French Revolution, and in England it was the outbreak of the first World War which changed everything.

These days we do not use varnish as they did many years ago. We have adapted to using more modern materials. New finishes which do not alter the colour of our images have been a boon. Though we, mostly, take our pictures from other people's art, we rearrange it to create a totally different effect. Sometimes we use images from several different sources on the one piece. Laser copying has been a great help to us. At least we do not have to cut up everything in sight.